Fiske Terrace/Midwood Park Designation Two Weeks Away

As The Times reported this weekend, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will vote on whether to designate a 12-block area that includes portions of both Fiske Terrace and Midwood Park. (The proposed district is bounded by Foster and Ocean Avenues, Avenue H and the subway tracks of the B and Q trains.) While not containing the same level of eye-popping mansions that can be found in neighboring parts of Victorian Flatbush, proposed district’s housing stock—which was largely mass-produced by two developers—is remarkably well preserved and serves as a fine example of middle-class living at the turn-of-the-century. Here’s what the Historic Districts Council has written about the area:

Midwood Park was constructed by developer John Corbin in the first decade of the 20th-century on what had previously been farmland. The houses were built using Corbin’s method of standardized construction. Buyers could choose from thirty distinct models, but uniform construction techniques, materials and assembly methods were employed to minimize cost and boost efficiency. The wood-shingled houses are relatively grand: set back from the street on large lawns, they have open porches and rich interior detailing in the style of the time. The streets have a landscaped median and are lined with mature trees. The neighborhood must have represented a striking alternative to city living.

Midwood Park has undergone few inappropriate alterations. It remains a unified, coherent and harmonious suburban neighborhood in an urban context. The Midwood Park Homeowners Association is advocating in consultation with the Historic Districts Council for historic district designation for the neighborhood.

The adjacent Fiske Terrace features more elegant houses but retains an intimate sense of place through its historical integrity. In 1905, T. B. Ackerson Company purchased a densely wooded tract of land and immediately cleared it, laid out streets and installed underground water, sewer, gas and electric lines. Eighteen months later, the former Fiske estate had been transformed by some 150 custom-built, detached, three-story suburban houses with heavy oak ornamental mantels, staircases, beamed ceilings and built-in bookcases, ornately bordered parquet floors and elaborate cabinetry. A landscaped median and hundreds of street trees planted at the time of development continue to contribute to the idyllic feeling of the neighborhood.

While it ain’t over ’til it’s over, it’s hard to imagine that LPC won’t sign off the designation.
Next Historic District: Fiske Terrace/Midwood Park? [NY Times]
Victorian Flatbush Headed to New Landmark Status? [Flatbush Life]
Neighborhood at risk: Midwood Park/Fiske Terrace [HDC]
Proposed District Map [LPC]